The Defence Secretary on Sunday appeared to slap down calls by his most senior
military commander for Nato to "up the ante" in Libya.

Liam Fox said a targeting extension demanded by Gen Sir David Richards, chief of the defence staff, had already happened. "I think the point he was making is that a number of Nato countries have been less happy about some of the targeting," Dr Fox said. The UK's parameters for attacks were "slightly more widely drawn" than those of some other allies, he added.

For legal reasons, the alliance has claimed that Gaddafi is not being directly targeted.

Gen Richards said Nato needed to "do more" or there was "a risk that the conflict could result in Gaddafi clinging to power." He added that should the dictator be killed in a strike on a command and control centre that would be "within the rules".

Although bombing of Tripoli intensified last week, it remains relatively light.

In what appears to be a clear attempt to kill Col Muammar Gaddafi, Nato has bombed both the dictator's Tripoli compound and a house where he was staying.

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Col Gaddafi, who spoke on a tape released on Friday, is still alive and the regime remains defiant. "The Libyan people will not kneel and will not give in," said the foreign minister, Abdelati Obeidi, in Tripoli yesterday.

Meanwhile, two suspected al-Qaeda terrorists have been arrested near the Libyan border in Tunisia. The pair, one Libyan and one Algerian, carried a suicide bomber's explosive belt, several bombs, and Afghan identity papers. Two further Libyans carrying a bomb were arrested earlier last week.

The vast majority of rebels are ordinary Libyans with no extremist agenda. However, Gaddafi regime officials have long claimed an al-Qaeda presence in rebel ranks. According to leaked US files a senior rebel commander, Abu Sufian Ibrahim Ahmed Hamuda bin Qumu, was a "probable member of Al Qaeda" who fought in Afghanistan and was "likely to pose a threat to the US, its interests and allies."

Mr Qumu, who spent five years in Guatanamo Bay, was released from the camp – and also subsequently from Libyan regime custody.

Another key rebel, Abdul-Hakim al-Hasadi, was in Afghanistan during the Taliban's rule, when al Qaeda had training camps there. He denies al Qaeda membership.

Both men are from the rebel-controlled town of Derna, which, according to a US military analysis, has supplied more foreign suicide bombers in Iraq than any other place.

Mahmoud Jebril, de facto head of the rebel Transitional National Council, said the rebel ranks included 11 people who had lived in Afghanistan and subsequently been through a "reconciliation" process with the Gaddafi government.

"They are just ordinary citizens," he said. "We don't have al Qaeda in our freedom fighters on the ground or in the council."

Exactly three months after the Libyan uprising started, prosecutors at the International Criminal Court will today seek indictments for murder against Col Gaddafi and two other high officials.

At least 1500 people are believed to have been killed by the regime over the last twelve weeks, human rights groups say.